Portland: Part 1

It had been fifteen years since I had been in Portland and sixteen since Frank had been there.  It's hard to believe.  So it was good to return to the city for two nights.  We stayed downtown in a hotel on the tenth floor. Anna didn't much enjoy the "tummy drop" feeling of going up and down in the elevator that went quickly.

But being that high had it's advantage of seeing things from a different perspective; like reflections on the building across the street.

Portland is a great city and has some good public transportation.  I love when a city has effective, extension public transportation.  We used the street cars and light rail (as well as our feet) for getting around. 

Last time we were in Portland we walked a long way to get to Washington Park to see the Japanese and Rose gardens.  This time it was so much better to just be able to buy a ticket on the light rail and have it take us there.

Portland must have the best bookstore in the world called Powell's.  It was there fifteen years ago and still is.  They have new and used books.

This is the sign to guide you where you need to go.  It says they have nine color coded rooms on four floors which take up nearly an entire city block (65,000 square feet).  They also have a coffee shop inside.

I went straight to the art section.  They had a nice little space to display some local art.  What an idea!  Frank and Anna did the rest of the store while I spent my time in the artist section of the art section.  I quickly glanced through the rest of the art section after I was done with the artists, but knew Frank and Anna would probably be ready to go.  I could spend a week in there, I think.  The nice thing is that they have used books, so you might be able to find a book that is out of print.  I thought I was quite self restrained in purchasing only two books: one on Alexander Calder (which is an older, used book), one on Paul Klee (different than the one I already had).

Since we arrived in the afternoon, going to Powell's, out to dinner and then swimming in the hotel pool was all we did the first day.